STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETl 289 



November, there are six months in which the business of raising the 

 worms may be conducted ; and allowing six weeks for each set of worms 

 to mature, there can be raised four perfect crops in a season. 



The worms, in the cocoonery spoken of, are fed by cutting the small 

 branches of the mulberry tree from one to two feet in length and la3'ing 

 them on the tables in the form of a triangle, this being done twice each 

 day, the successive layers forming quite a pyramid before the worm has 

 accomplished its moultings and is ready to spin the cocoon, which it ia 

 permitted to do among the pile of dried sticks from which it has stripped 

 the foliage, or it is given a cluster of sticks or a bundle of dry mustard 

 stalks for that purpose. 



Cocoons raised in California and sent to France for examination have 

 been pronounced of superior excellence, and on measurement were found 

 to give an average of four hundred yards of silk to the cocoon, exceeding 

 European cocoons by from fifty to one hundred yards. It was argued from 

 this fact that the wornas must have enjo3'cd robust health; hence the 

 eggs produced by the moths would be of superior excellence for breeding 

 purposes in the silk raising districts of Europe, where the worms, owing 

 to various maladies, had become deteriorated. Large orders for silk- 

 worm eggs have been received in California from the silk growing estab- 

 lishments in France, and a limited quantity, sent as far as possible by an 

 overland route, reached their destination in good condition, and the expec- 

 tation that they would produce worms superior in health to the diseased 

 progeny raised from the feeble stock of the cocooneries of Europe has been 

 realized. 



Throughout large districts of the State there are moist lands, some in 

 course of reclamation for agricultural purposes, where the mulberry would 

 flourish equally as well as the willow as a hedge for fencing. On such lands 

 the mulberry could be planted as a stool, from two to three feet apart 

 each way, and cut down as wanted for the worms, as is the practice in 

 ITindostan. From two to three crops could be taken annually. In some 

 of the vine-growing districts, the vineyards are surrounded with live 

 willow fences. If the vigneron would substitute the mulberr}' he would 

 get rid of a vermin-breeding nuisance, and by allowing an occasional 

 tree in the hedge to grow up, so as to fruit, he would have something 

 for the birds to feed on after they have exhausted the supply of insects, 

 thereby saving his grapes, besides the means of raising so large a quan- 

 tity of silk that would challenge the returns from the vine in the season's 

 results. 



That the pabulum elaborated in the stomach of the silk worm, from 

 which it spins its fibrous inclosure, is of a superior character in the dry 

 climate of California, is unquestionably due to the perfect maturity of 

 the mulberry leaf on which it feeds; hence it ma}'' be expected that the 

 silk will be of an even and strong texture, and of unequalled lustre. 

 Much time, however, must necessarily ela]ise before silk culture will 

 attain importance in the Pacific States, as the mulberry trees are not 

 yet planted by which any considerable number of worms can be fed, nor 

 are they likely to be propagated until old, deeply seated prejudices 

 against silk culture shall be uprooted by discussion, practical demonstra- 

 tion, and unwearied effort on the part of those who, by making the 

 subject a specialty, at last find the usual reward of the pioneer in all 

 public benefactions — thankless, unrequited service. 



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